Have you ever been to a magic show? Magic, or rather the performance of magic, has been around for hundreds of years. The first book of magic tricks was published in 1584, by an English author named Reginald Scot. His book, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, was devoted to debunking the illusions performed by magicians of the time. During this time, fear and suspicion of witchcraft was widespread and Scot attempted to remove the veil of mystery surrounding so-called magical performances. Although The Discoverie of Witchcraft was the first of its kind that we know of, magic precedes Scot's book.
Magic has been confounding mankind further back than when Scot's book was written. The first mention of perceived magic was from 1300 B.C. when Greek myths included them in their narratives. In those days magic was often attributed to mythical creatures like nymphs rather than humans. It was seen as a more supernatural experience but as time moved on magic began to be more about creating illusions or performing magic tricks.
Even in ancient times, tricks and deceptions were used to mesmerize in warfare, ceremony and entertainment. As time passed, magicians honed their skills and invented increasingly complex and impressive illusions. Today's illusionists continue to borrow from a long history of famous magic tricks to add to their repertoire. Magic is now a more prestigious line of work but there are still those that view it with suspicion.
In the Dark Ages (400 - 1000 A.D.) magic was still regarded as arcane and not to be trusted. The mistrust of magic continued into the Middle Ages (1000 - 1500 A.D.) and one of the reasons Scot wrote his book was to counter this misconception about magic. Many copies of his book were burned due to people's ignorance at the time. They believed magic was more witchcraft than tricks. Luckily, over time this attitude has changed and people become more knowledgeable about magic.
Unfortunately, magic was sometimes used to defraud the common man. Some magicians were really tricksters pretending to be clairvoyants or hypnotists. The aim was purely to trick people into giving them money. This type of fraud was common and there wasn't much that could be done. Nowadays social media and an internet connection allows us to report such fraud attempts to warn others.
A common bluff by clairvoyants was to extract money from people by promising to reveal their futures or talk to a deceased loved one. Sometimes people saw right through these tricks, but others who wanted to believe in real magic didn't see through the lie.
Over time magic has moved away from wizards, witches, and warlocks and more towards illusions and entertainment. Omens associated with magic still have some power in Western society. For example, black cats were thought to be a witch's familiar. A familiar was someone or something that helped a witch. Black cats were given this damaging association and anytime someone saw a black cat they considered it a bad omen. This unfortunate superstition still happens today, but it is diminishing with education and the realization that cats are awesome in any colour!
Have you ever seen a magician or an illusionist perform? Magic can be amazing to witness, but you're often never quite sure what you just saw. Was it real or was it all pretense? Sometimes the magic you see defies explanation and leaves us perplexed. Sometimes we're convinced we know how the trick was performed. At other times we have a suspicion that the trick was performed one way only to find out that our suspicions were wrong.
One of the most famous magicians was Harry Houdini. He was an illusionist and escape-artist. He was famous for escaping from various items including special handcuffs, a large milk can, a straitjacket, a water tank, a packing crate dropped into water, and even being buried. Houdini found being buried alive incredibly difficult and even asked for help. He escaped all these items, thankfully!
Modern magicians and illusionists have come a long way from where this trade first started. What do you think will be next for future magicians? It's going to be exciting to see what magicians come up with next.